Check out THIS report!

[John from Riverside]

Very nice post....

 

I could talk to this guy for hours......

[MadBuffaloDisease]

What an awful interface on BB.com's boards.

Yeah, the new message board over there is lousy.

[The Jokeman]

Now THAT'S a report, thanks!

 

I like that Crazy 8's part... play to the playmakers' strengths and keep the low-talent (Shelton/Ricard) on the bench!

741179[/snapback]

The same Ricard that helped one Jamal Lewis rush for over 2,000 yards in a season? Just because a guy is a blocker and doesn't show on the stat sheet mean the guy is low on talent.

[Coach Tuesday]

The more of that kind of thing I read, the more I can't decide which is more hilarious: the fact that Mularkey was Levy's first choice, or the fact that Mularkey had a HC job and quit.

[Pyrite Gal]

Thanks also as this was a neat post to read.

 

I think one of the most interesting implications from this post relates to the writer seeing 3 step and no more than 5 steps drops from the QB. If this read, decide and quick release model is the general method of operation for the QB, then the concern expressed by some of KH not being able to throw the long bomb may be misplaced.

 

If he is looking to hit a WR whose maximum distance down the field when the pass is released is a far as the WR can get after one says one..two...three to themselves the need to consistently throw it deep is not likely to be there.

 

I suspect that KH like any NFL QB will be called upon even in this type of approach to take a longer drop and set-up 2-3 times a game, but there is a big difference between this occaisional requirement and what is required of a QB who needs a Bledsoe like rocket if he is called upon to throw it deep every series or merely offer the threat throwing it deep any series.

 

I'm fine with anyone classifying KH as a rag arm (if his arm were that bad then I think we would have heard this complaint a lot before the current QB starter battle broke out and fans who desperately care that JP win out rather than those of who don't care who wins as long as that winner is an adequate QB) because as long as the QB is beyondBilly Kilmer status, I think even a rag arm can throw it deep 2-3 times a game though he does not have the strength to do this consistently.

 

In addition, this analysis notes that the QB needs to have decided who he is going to throw to before the snap. If so, doing good reads and not getting fooled by fake coverages is going to be more important to making this O work than athleticism or escapability.

 

The nost troubleing thing about KH's performance so far is an apparent inability on his part to hit the short pass. I think the deep pass concern is really overblown.

[Zona]

that was a great breakdown! I think it is pretty obvious that the guy knows his football and is capable of recognizing what he sees. We definetely need to recruit this guy to TSW....

[Rico]

The same Ricard that helped one Jamal Lewis rush for over 2,000 yards in a season? Just because a guy is a blocker and doesn't show on the stat sheet mean the guy is low on talent.

741274[/snapback]

You've got 5 grunts up front to block exclusively... everyone else on the field should be more versatile IMO. I'd much rather see a 3rd WR or a 2nd TE that can block AND make a play than a 1-trick pony like Ricard.

[LynchMob23]

I am really glad you guys enjoyed it too - I've been quite worried that if I ever posted something like that I'd be construed as knowing more than the coaches or something like that.

 

MadBuffaloDisease, I got your second message so feel free to post it.

 

For those of you who aren't on the BB.com msg board here's some videos I took while at camp to show how Denney and Nance are helping in the run game:

 

God Bless and Go Bills!

[LynchMob23]

I saw that part, too, but I liked the Crazy 8's part better.

Maybe the other 2 are too sloooow to cut it?

741183[/snapback]

 

It seemed to me in camp that the other two were in for the I back sets, but those weren't used nearly as much as the single back sets.

 

I think there are a few shots of them in the I in my album and if not I'll upload some in a few minutes.

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/BillsFann

 

It'll be in an album entitled "I Backs and Slot Motions"

[Rico]

It seemed to me in camp that the other two were in for the I back sets, but those weren't used nearly as much as the single back sets.

 

I think there are a few shots of them in the I in my album and if not I'll upload some in a few minutes.

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/BillsFann

741400[/snapback]

Thanks! Single-back sets... music to my ears!

[LynchMob23]

I absolutely loved the breakdown of the run game and why it didnt work, and has me amped to see fairchilds new look offense. Of course its still football and you still need to block to open holes, but his breakdown explains a lot of the problems with the run game last season.  If nothing else whether we're good or bad Im excited to see how fairchilds offense develops.

741234[/snapback]

 

One thing I will warn you about with non-Bills fans; if this starts to work the way it should, we're going to hear a lot of guff about injuring people with the sheer number of cut blocks that will occur. A lot of the runs had no holes inside in practice because linemen weren't cut blocking people.

 

Also, as far as "vanilla" - I think Jauron put it best - I think we're going to see a good bit of it, but some of it will stay locked away (like the Reed end-around, the onsides kick drills and stuff I included in my first post over there about camp - which I'll include below):

 

Greetings Bills fans one and all,

BillsFann here to give you a bit of a hodgepodge of camp reporting fun. I will warn you ahead of time – I can be quite long-winded and will mention a lot of things that may interest, or may not. Also, I don't have BLM's flair for bringing you "there", but I'll try!

Bottom line – I’m a Bills fan that wants to give a little insight into some of the things I saw in and out of camp.

 

Today, I’ll focus on more of the psychological things I saw in and out of camp, tomorrow I’ll put a ton of technical stuff up (including more pictures and a few clips of some great technique I saw during camp) and my thoughts on the camp while I was there. As always, comments, critiques, etc are welcome!

 

Part I: If Buffalo’s TC was a Reality TV Show…

 

I figure since BLM had suggested this, I would start with a few of the notes I’d made he specifically asked I mention to you, the message board community. To start, I noticed a great trend throughout training camp: alliances. They were everywhere. Takeo and Crowell. JP and a good portion of the line. Willis and Holcomb. I figured I’d get this little nugget out of the way first, as it is the most “controversial” so to speak. For those of you who attend camp – watch where JP and Holcomb line up for opening stretches. For those of you who can’t, I’ll tell you where they lined up each day I was there, and what I think it means (though, really what do I know?).

 

Imagine 5 rows of all the Bills players, lined up for individual exercises (sprints, karaokes, side shuffles, etc). Every day, for every exercise Kelly Holcomb and Willis were about 5 ft or so apart, or roughly a row at best. And after every exercise, they’d banter – in fact I remember Willis congratulating Holcomb on winning his sprint group once (but more on Willis later) and Holcomb giving him a pound in reply. Meanwhile, JP was always within five feet of: Jason Peters, Aaron Gibson and Chris V. I think that JP has been listening to the advice Jim has been giving him – talk to your line and focus on your TE when things aren’t going right, which he’s done all three days I’ve been here. In fact, two of the incompletions he was credited with Wednesday were throws to Royal instead of going to a “slightly open” deep option.

 

What do I think this means? While this QB battle may not have much acrimony, both are smart in how they’re interacting with their teammates: inclusive without forcing them to choose sides. Some may not like it; I do. It’s realistic – how many of us do not talk to all of our coworkers at our jobs, yet we always find time for the people that are the “go-to” people when things go “wonky”?

 

As Wyo said, another tandem at camp has been Peerless and Roscoe. In fact, they’re buddy-buddy even off the field, as they were quite cool inside of the local Best Buy after the Monday practice. At every practice I attended, it was almost guaranteed that after a play Peerless would be in Roscoe’s ear (and most of the wideouts for that matter) giving little tips on form. One more thing about the double P: he seems to find ways to get open that the others haven’t (or can’t yet) figured out. He’s another coach on the field and with these youngins’ we could use the help. With the “new” Peerless on the Bills I am reminded of an old phrase: “Young horses run fast, but old ones know the way.”

 

Finally, I wanted to comment on Willis and a few of the relationships he’s fostered during the camp. First of all, during any sort of team exercise you can almost always hear Willis challenging some random person on each line to beat whoever “won” the previous exercise. In addition, Willis seems to be adapting to a leadership role I don’t think I’ve seen out of him to date. Case in point – the night practice. After practice, the guys were all tired and just wanted to shower and relax I’m sure. But not Willis. He chatted with Peters for like 3 minutes and then said “Y’all ready?” and a second later Willis, Preston, Geisinger, Peters, Fowler, Gandy and a few other linemen start doing suicides the width of the field, full speed. How do I know it was full speed? When Willis did the first with the group, he tried to turn for the return trip and sprawled flat out on his back. For a second I was scared, as I thought he twisted his knee. But he got up, laughed it off and caught up to the linemen. They did this for about 5 minutes, then the line was noticeably tired and left. That is when the “Willis Show” began. Willis sprinted several times from the middle of the field to the sidelines, signing autographs and then returning to midfield to go where the most cheers for him were. Toward the end, unless you were a kid, he wouldn’t sign unless you knew some Willis-related trivia, like when he was born. Quite funny and he was quite amused by my friends and I calling the University of Pittsburgh “The U” vs Miami calling themselves “Tha U”. I told him “it’s all about grammar baby” to which he laughed.

 

Random Notes: At the end of the night practice, Nall was practicing with the Man-Beast known as Neufeld, when a throng of fans in the far corner of the stadium began to chant his name psychotically. Eventually, he trotted over to these uber-fans, who elicited a cheer that made me think Jim Kelly just threw his HOF jacket into the crowd. Everyone has a fan base during Training Camp!

 

One technical note I want to sneak in as I love it: In light of the recent rules changes regarding the onside kick, the Bills ST unit practiced a really neat way of going for the ball. Lining up four on each side, three players were positioned behind the four on the right. When Lindell kicked the ball, they (the three) acted as wedge busters to clear out the path for Coy Wire, whose sole job was to recover the kick Lindell aims toward the sideline high (no bounce that I saw) essentially making it a pass via feet to Wire. Over the 3 days I saw onside kick practice once and Wire was the only person who got reps on it, though the lines would occasionally change. I think he’s going to stay.

 

 

 

Anyhoo, that’s it outta me tonight. God Bless and I hope you got something out of this report. If not, the “techies” on the board’ll get a kick outta installment two!

 

Pictures are at the following address, with more coming:

http://community.webshots.com/user/BillsFann

[Rico]

Another great read, thanks... good to see Willis taking on a leadership role.

[Simon]

I certainly appreciate the effort on the posters part, but there are some things in this report that I take issue with:

 

"Along with Willis, our starting QB (whomever that will be) and our line, this group is quite good"

This was the first statement that set off my "homer alert". We're just one year removed from one of hte worst offenses in the entire history of this organization, and frankly we haven't really made much, if any, significant upgrades in personell. Yet somehow this group is suddenly "quite good"?

 

"most of the reads seemed to revolve around Reed doing quick outs and slants from the slot, with Peerless or Evans doing a double route......No QB had longer than a 5 step drop, and most were typically three step,"

This particular bit of incongruity really makes me question Fairchild, the poster, and/or both.

For one thing the only real strength of the Bills smallish WR corps is its speed. If Fairchild really intends to focus his passing game on short drops and getting the ball out quick, he's playing to his personell's weakness by asking a very green QB to make fast accurate decisions and then asking his undersized WR's to play in traffic. If the Bills are going to have an effective passing attack with this group they're going to have to take a lot of shots downfield to take advantage of the strengths of their personell.

The other thing that's just plain strange is the posters observation that the outside WR's are running doubles off of a bunch of 3 step and the occasional 5 step drops. I'm sorry but that makes no sense whatsoever as when you're running double moves the routes take that much longer to develop and you simply can't run them off short drops.

 

"Willis and Gates in my opinion in this set can do some major damage receiving and running-wise any of the backs should enjoy some great blocking by all three wideouts... "

Is this for real? Josh Reed is a dedicated and effective blocker from the WR postion, but the fact that this poster expects "great blocking" from the likes of Evans, Price and/or Parrish really makes me wonder about both his objectivity and his analytical skills.

 

"Typically last year, Coach Mularkey would state that there were “holes” for Willis to run through, but he just didn’t hit them hard enough......I think a coach should know, especially a head coach why some plays worked well and others do not  based on personnel."

The only thing I heard Mularkey say about WIllis last year was that he wasn't sticking it up in there hard enough. And you know what? He wasn't. He ran with one hand on his skirt all year.

And if this poster wasn't a regular fixture in the Bills locker room all season, then he simply has absolutely no idea what transpired in meetings, in the locker room or on the sidelines. All he's doing is spouting his preconceived notions with no basis in fact whatsoever. What's even worse is that some of you all are eating it up as if any of you actually know what you're talking about.

A professional coach who's highly respected by his peers and who in his brief career has already produced some absolutely stellar work suddenly forgot his business and turned into an idiot in one year. Yeah right. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that he didn't even install the offense in the first place, was dealing with a rookie QB, saw his OLine decimated by injuries and then had his feet cut out from under him by a senile meddling owner. But uhhh duh, yeah that there Mularkey guy sure is a idiot......

 

"Fast forward to Fairchild – he’s allowing the outside runs... while allowing one of the bread and butter plays of the Martz/Gibbs/Fairchild/Saunders Offense to thrive"

Yeah watching an overweight, half-stepping WIllis get his legs taken out every time he tried to get the corner last year was inspiring. Mularkey should have run him off the edges even more. Maybe we'll have more success this year now that our WR corps is so loaded with "great blocking" on the outsides.

And did he just try to prove a point by equating a Mike Martz with a Joe Gibbs offense? And then tossing Fairchild and Al Saunders in there just for the hell of it? Hey where's Charlie Weis, we can fit him in there too.....

 

Again, I appreciate the posters dedication and effort. But this report is just so chock-full of holes, inconsistencies and blind homerism that it's hard to put very much stock in it. I'm a much bigger fan of most of the sound, accurate reports we get from our regulars here than the kind of self-aggrandizing, inconsistent stuff that we occasionaly see coming from bb.com and billszone.

 

Cya

 

P.S. The poster who referred to Ricard as a one-trick pony has obviously never seen him play.

[Coach Tuesday]

I appreciate the posters dedication and effort. But this report is just so chock-full of holes, inconsistencies and blind homerism that it's hard to put very much stock in it. I'm a much bigger fan of most of the sound, accurate reports we get from our regulars here than the kind of self-aggrandizing, inconsistent stuff that we occasionaly see coming from bb.com and billszone.

741422[/snapback]

 

Why don't you just say you disagree with him, and explain your reasons, instead of attacking the guy's credibility. Sheesh. It's kinda nice to have some good ol' football talk around here for a change...

[Rico]

P.S. The poster who referred to Ricard as a one-trick pony has obviously never seen him play.

741422[/snapback]

This from the man who thought Bennie Anderson was a good signing.

 

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=279013

Now we're talking guards. This is the first name I've heard that is a good fit for our offense and should also fit the Bills budget.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=292599

Putting another mauling slab of beef like Anderson beside him to help protect him is only going to make Trey a better and more effective player.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=293274

We were already doing a nice job leaning on people late in games last season and adding a rhino like Anderson is only going to make it worse for the bad guys. Not to mention it could get even fruglier if the Bills decide to regularly use the massive JPeters as a TE/extratackle.

Oh boy this is going to be fun.....

[Simon]

Why don't you just say you disagree with him, and explain your reasons,

I thought I did.

But when somebody refers to the great blocking of our WR's, is talking about running doublemoves off of short drops, pretends to know what happened in a locker room he was nowhere near, expresses admiration for an offense that doesn't fit the Bills' personell and tries to equate coaches who run very different offenses it's going to raise questions about his motivations and his reliability.

 

It's kinda nice to have some good ol' football talk around here for a change...

Can't argue with that.

[Simon]

This from the man who thought Bennie Anderson was a good signing.

 

The guy had been a 4 year starter on a very good OLine. It wasn't a stretch to think he was going to help the Bills shaky LG position. It didn't take very long to realize that he wasn't the same player after his new contract that he was before.

 

And the point still stands that Ricard is the opposite of a 1trick pony. He's a multi-dimensional player who in additon to being a solid blocker, can also catch it, carry it and has caught my eye on special teams more than once.

[MartyBall4Buffalo]

Yeah watching an overweight, half-stepping WIllis get his legs taken out every time he tried to get the corner last year was inspiring. Mularkey should have run him off the edges even more. Maybe we'll have more success this year now that our WR corps is so loaded with "great blocking" on the outsides.

And did he just try to prove a point by equating a Mike Martz with a Joe Gibbs offense? And then tossing Fairchild and Al Saunders in there just for the hell of it? Hey where's Charlie Weis, we can fit him in there too.....

 

741422[/snapback]

 

In all fairness that might have had something to do with Mularkeys system. Not saying Mularkey was an idiot or forgot how to coach offenses, but it just seemed last year he was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Could've had something to do with the injuries to the oline, but Willis was never known as a powerful inside runner. Trying to turn him into Mularkeys version of Jerome Bettis just wasn't one of the brighter ideas. I know people like to think "Well Willis was slow last year" but the stats just don't bear that out. A 4.4 ypc average wide right and 4.0 to the right side. 4.1 to the left. Granted only 2.9 to wide left which has me concerned about Gandy, but I think with the switch to more athletic linemen. Reyes will be able to pull out something anderson just wasn't good at. The drop in Mcgahees average comes from running up the gut of the offense 125 times which is up there with the likes of bettis and larry johnson.

 

It could be argued the interior of our oline was the weakest part of the unit. Whether or not it's been improved is up for debate. I'll take a wait and see approach on that, but If I have a rb like Mcgahee I'd want to get him out in space enable him to hit the edges, and try to get around the corner which he had success doing running to the right side of the line. I just still think it's rather odd that McGahee was averaging 4.7 ypc early in the season to a nose dive once Mularkey openly complained about just hitting the hole and taking whats there.

 

The rest of the offense I wont touch on cause well we haven't seen fairchilds offense yet, but I think his assocation with saunders and martz and gibbs is that they all come from a the Don Coryell system as gibbs started as an offensive line coach under Coryell at SD State. Martz learned the system from vermeil as well as Al Saunders learning it from coryell with the chargers , and fairchild having worked with Martz as well, so I'm guessing thats where the connection comes from.

[Kelly the Dog]

Simon, Mularkey certainly seemed like he lost it all in one year, and that does happen, especially when things are going horribly wrong and you start to push the panic button. Again, it is no surprise that his mantra of "stay the course" in 2004 was smart, and worked, and he completely abandoned that philosophy in 2005. You also cannot tell me it was wise to have these packages where Willis wasn't on the field at certain critical times, the abandonment of the running game, the outright refusal to give a conservative gameplan to his young raw quarterback, the outrageous tendency to try to outthink or out-gimmick teams near the goaline, the hideous tendency to put Sam Aiken in the game in place of Moulds to have it look like a run and then run 100% of the time, the refusal to play Losman in the last game or two of the season, and other countless meatheaded moves.

 

That doesn't mean he won't get his head together and return to some of the things that made him successful. But he has a ridiculous succession of VERY questionable moves and calls and tendencies last year. Mularkey's year as a coach was very close to the clusterfukk year of the team. He hardly ever made a smart, shrewd move. And I was a big Mularkey fan.

[Bill from NYC]

I am really glad you guys enjoyed it too - I've been quite worried that if I ever posted something like that I'd be construed as knowing more than the coaches or something like that.

741398[/snapback]

 

I can't say that I blame you.

The second I was finished reading the post, my first thought was "this guy obviously knows more than our coaches, let alone ANY coach." Then, I wondered as to whether of not Parcells and Gibbs pester you over the phone, constantly seeking advice.

 

My advice is to get a good Caller ID system so you can filter your calls.

You may be "construed" as being the best football mind in the United States, but you ARE entitled to a little rest and privacy!